Starch binding protein (SBP) is a binding domain derived from Rhizopus oryzae glucoamylase (RoSBD), a member of carbohydrate-binding module family 21 (CBM21) with raw starch-binding activity. SBP is favorable to be applied as an affinity tag for fusion protein engineering and purification in Escherichia coli and Pichia pastoris systems. Three amino acid sequences of SBP have been disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,662,918.
Ganoderma is a rare and valuable herb in Chinese medicine. It has been known in China for over 5,000 years as “Ling Zhi”. There are a variety of ganodenmas, including G. lucidum (red), G. applanatum (brown), G. tsugae (red), G. sinense (black), and G. oregonense (dark brown).
Ganoderma lucidum (Ganoderma lucidum (Fr.) Karst) is a traditional Chinese medicinal fungi, which has anti-tumor, immuno-modulatory, antiviral, antibacterial, inhibiting platelet aggregation and other effects. It has been found that Ganoderma lucidum has anti-allergic activity. (Chen H. Y et al., J. Med. Mycol. 1992; 33 505-512) and hepatoprotective effect (Lin J. M. et al., Am. J. Chin. Med. 1993; 21(1) 59-69). It has also been found that immune regulatory proteins (LZ-8) purified from Ganoderma lucidum has activities of inhibiting systemic allergic reactions, treating liver cancer and preventing diabetes (Kino K. et al., J. Biol. Chem. 1989; 264(1) 472-8). However, LZ-8's application on feed has not been developed yet.
Recently, Yun Cao et al. disclosed that commercially cultivated ‘G. lucidum’ (“Lingzhi”) in East Asia is a different species from the true G. lucidum and proposed a new species G. lingzhi for “Lingzhi”, which has an East Asia distribution (Y. C et. al., Fungal Diversity. 2012; 56(1) 49-62). Therefore, LZ-8 should be deemed as being purified from Ganoderma lingzhi rather than Ganoderma lucidum. In addition, Fungal immunostimulatory proteins isolated from different Ganoderma species have been shown to have similar amino acid sequences and functions. (Lin. W H et. al., J. Biol. Chem. 1997; 272(32):20044-20048., Jinn T R, et. al., Biosci Biotechnol Biochem. 2006; 70(11): 2627-2634.; Huang L et. al., Proteins. 2009; 75(2):524-7).
Interferon (IFN)-gamma is not only a marker of T(H)1 CD4, CD8 and natural killer (NK) cells but also a critical antiviral mediator which is central to the elimination of viruses from the central nervous system (CNS). Interferon-gamma has been associated with various kinds of virus such as measles virus (MV), herpes simplex virus (HSV), vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) and respiratory syncytial virus. (Chesler D A, Reiss C S. Cytokine Growth Factor Rev. 2002 December; 13(6):441-54; van Schaik S M, Obot N, Enhorning G, Hintz K, Gross K, Hancock G E, Stack A M, Welliver R C. J Med Virol. 2000 October; 62(2):257-66).
Coccidiosis is a parasitic disease of the intestinal tract of animals caused by coccidian protozoa. The disease spreads from one animal to another by contacting with infected feces or ingestion of infected tissue. Diarrhea, which may become bloody in severe cases, is the primary symptom. Most animals infected with coccidia are asymptomatic, but young or immuno-compromised animals may suffer severe symptoms and death. While coccidia can infect a wide variety of animals, including humans, birds, and livestock, they are usually species-specific. In poultry, most coccidiosis was caused by the species belong to the genus Eimeria and infect various sites in the intestine. Coccideosis is common and widespread in sucking pigs and usually caused by three genus including Eimeria, Isospora and Cryptosporidia. 
U.S. Pat. No. 8,163,519 disclosed that fungal immunomodulatory protein (FIP) protected groupers against Iridovirus or Vibrio harveyi infection, but it is administered via intraperitoneal injection of FIP or via feeding FIP-comprising yeast. U.S. Pat. No. 8,163,519 also disclosed that FIP reduced interferon-γ in Der p-stimulated mice, which demonstrated that HP could function in inhibiting anaphylactic. Although U.S. Pat. No. 8,163,519 also disclosed that “splenocytes from Balb/c mice not fed with FIP or from Der p-stimulated mice will produce more IFN-r (463.8 and 1100.7) than the control if re-stimulated with FIP”, it is noted that the FIP stimulation was in vitro to the splenocytes directly, which means that this effect may not exist when administering FIP in vivo. Therefore, more experiments are needed to verify the correlation between FIP and interferon-γ in vivo.
Lin et al. (An immunomodulatory protein, Ling Zhi-8, induced activation and maturation of human monocyte-derived dendritic cells by the NF-kappaB and MAPK pathways; J Leukoc Biol. 2009 October; 86(4):877-89.) studied immune modulatory effects of LZ-8 in BALB/c mice by injection and showed that IFN-r was increased. However, this effect may not exist when LZ-8 is administered by oral administration because the complicated chemical reactions in digestive tracts can change LZ-8's structure. Therefore, LZ-8's effect by oral administration can not be easily predicted with results of injection. Further experiments are still needed to verify the correlation between LZ-8 and interferon-γ when orally administering LZ-8 to a subject.